It was organized in the hope of arresting individuals for engaging in then illegal homosexual acts (whilst officially the raid was warranted to the fact that liquor was being sold on the premises without a license).

Ever since that Friday night in July 1969, Stonewall will be remembered as the spark which set the world alight with gay issues and conflicts.

However, this is probably one of the biggest insults to all those men and women who fought for our rights in the years prior to Stonewall, as I will now briefly explain.

Going back to 1965, was a time when the New York gay bars were not legal and homosexuals were perceived as immoral and undesirable individuals. The New York State Liquor Authorities decided that any meeting of three or more homosexuals in a bar was provocation for the bar to lose its license.

Dick Leitsch, president of one of New York’s few gay rights organizations, was one of the first leaders who dared to use his own name to use the courts to sue for homosexual rights and to overturn the authorities discriminatory policies.

He legalized gay bars and ended the police entrapment methods - Vice cops dressed as real people who frequented bars where gay people congregated. Unsuspecting patrons would proposition the cops, leave the bar and once outside be promptly arrested.

The victim would usually plead guilty and pay a fine, praying for as little publicity as possible, and yet still end up losing their jobs and breaking up with their families.

So, with bars legitimized and entrapment ended, why did the Stonewall riots have anything to do with gay rights?

The Stonewall Inn was an after hours private club for members only. It was reputed to be Mafia owned (as were most of the gay bars in those days) and liquor was sold on the premises without a liquor license. This made it a perfect target for the authorities.

Many members of the bar supported the raid because they wanted the gay-bars to be gay-owned, gay-operated and the Mafia out of the business. What they failed to realize was that without the Mafia’s money, there might not have been any gay bars to legitimize.

That summer, the police decided to launch an all out attack on illegal minority clubs throughout the city, including straight black and Hispanic clubs as well as gay ones. By the time the police hit the Stonewall, the customers were angry, frustrated and more important, running out of places to go.

At 3am in the morning, nine police officers raided the Stonewall. The employees were arrested for selling liquor without a license whilst the customers were allowed to leave one at a time.

The mood outside was described as festive, but this changed as the police shoved three drag queens, a lesbian, the doorman and the bartender into a police van. The crowd threw coins and shouted abuse. Coins turned to bottles and the hidden anger was released. There was a strong feeling of gay community. It was "us against them".

As a result of the riots that occurred over the following few days, many new gay rights groups appeared. GLF (Gay Liberation Front), with leftist ideology and anarchic structure formed and aligned themselves with other radical groups of the period.

A group then split away from the GLF because they were so disgusted by the close links that the GLF had with outside individuals (Malcome X, H. Rap Brown and Eldrege Cleaver added a hatred of faggotry to their black militant stance; Fidel Castro was shuffling homosexuals off to concentration camps and Mother Russia was simply sending them to mental hospitals and to Siberia).

This new split called themselves the GAA, the Gay Activist Alliance, and used the Greek letter lambda as a symbol of their group and of gay liberation. Many small groups also sprang up, helping the age-old barriers to be torn down.

Gay people all around the world were beginning to emerge from their closets, organizations and gay renaissance’s spread throughout the land. Diverse gay groups and independent gays marched in brotherhood and sisterhood, something which would later be followed by annual Pride days.

Suddenly, gay bathhouses flourished, as did gay porn theaters, book shops and backroom bars. Whilst police raids on such places still existed, the growing flack from the gay community and the growing support from straight individuals wore the police down. The gay movement, old and new, promoted the freedom to love and love freely.

And this is why Stonewall should be remembered today. The communal gay spirit born during that time, which has grown ever stronger, and must be allowed to continue to do so, unless camp will be a word which only follows concentration.

Written by gayboy